Change Of Heart
by Ryou'sChangeOfHeart
Summary: When Ryou Bakura's old schoolfriend visits him in Domino, she had no idea of the darkness that awaits her... A second spirit, a test of true friendship and a desperate hunt for answers, set across the backdrop of the Battle City Tournament!
1. The Best Days of Your Life

The worst time to feel alone is when you're surrounded.

Hoshiko Akira moved with the crowd. She was surrounded by the crowd. But she wasn't part of the crowd. She never had been, and sometimes she thought she never would be.

The crowd of students began to disperse into the separate classes, and her class traipsed reluctantly into the first class of the day, chemistry. The thick air was balmy and stuffy as she walked to her usual desk and seated herself onto the slightly rickety, wooden chair. Unzipping her bag, she extracted her dog- eared, worn chemistry textbook and had just placed it on the wooden, graphitised desk when something hit her on the back of the head.

Studiously ignoring the explosion of malicious giggling from behind her, she extended a hand and plucked the offending article up off the tiled floor. It was merely a thick rubber band, launched from the back of the classroom, but the message was clear enough.

She let it fall to the floor again, and continued to unpack her books, adept with a little more venom the was usual.

The pale, golden sunlight streamed through the ceiling-to-floor windows as the teacher began to chalk up a long, complex and thoroughly boring chemical equation on the blackboard. Not concentrating, her eyes were drawn to the empty chair beside her, and the boy who had once occupied it.

Ryou Bakura had been a good friend of hers. That is, until he had suddenly upped and moved away, almost three months ago. She hadn't seen him since the day of his departure. Nor, she felt, had she received a viable reason for his sudden necessity to leave. Of course, there had been rumours, accidents… but the point was, he had been the only friend she'd had in this school, and once he'd departed, the bullies had descended on her like rabid vultures onto a fresh carcass. Not that the bullying had been anything new. The taunts had been consistent ever since she'd started at the school- She was the weird one, the poor kid, the orphan. They were the rich, pampered children who had maids and ate caviar for breakfast. Still, having Ryou around had made it less of a strain. Now, she had no-one. Ryou had moved far away, and although she had worked extremely hard to get a place in this school, she had recently found herself beginning to wonder why she was still there.

Snapping herself out of her reverie, she stretched across the table and retrieved her notebook, flicked to a fresh page and started to jot down the notes on the production of oxygen, which had just been written up on the board by the teacher. She had recently gotten into the habit of scattering her books and notes haphazardly across the two-seater desk in an effort to conceal her friend's absence, but it did little to ease her loneliness, and it was on days like this when she missed his presence the most.

She pushed a strand of dark mahogany hair back from her eyes and continued to write.

The cafeteria was already heaving with students by the time Hoshiko managed to enter. She was ravenously hungry, and the food was one of the few things she actually liked about the school, so she was quite looking forward to her lunch. She picked up a grey, plastic tray and moved to the back of the winding queue.

From the corner of her eye, she could see an extremely pretty girl making a vague gesture in her direction, then what appeared to be a rude and simpering impersonation. The table erupted into gales of raucous laughter. Ignoring this childish behaviour as usual, Hoshiko picked out a healthy lunch of salad and orange juice. Balancing the loaded tray steadily in her palms, she threw a glance around to make sure that there were no outstretched feet to trip her up. She walked carefully to her normal table beside the large windows, which was, as usual, unoccupied, bar her. Sitting with her back to the window, she plucked up her fork and began to eat the juicy, green leaves of lettuce. As he ate, she slid her Duel Monsters card deck out of her pocket and leafed through the cards she loved so well- Solar Mage, Spellcaster's Valkyria, Change of Heart… And unbounded, a warm memory washed over her like a wave on a beach' shore…

_''Why are some cards green?'' asked a younger, more innocent Hoshiko._

_''A spell card is always coloured green,'' explained a nine-year-old Ryou Bakura._

_''What does a spell card do?'' she enquired, picking up some, and gazing at them with a kind of awed fascination._

_''That depends,'' he said patiently. ''Some are used to change the playing field, some power up your monsters, and some can change the conditions of battle.''_

_''Oh.'' she said. ''So, they're good?''_

_''Yep.'' he nodded. ''In fact, my favourite card is a spell.'' _

_He held up a jade- green card so she could see. A picture of an angel was painted on it, split down the middle. One half had a bat- like wing, the colour of soot, and the other side had a pure, chalky white wing, with snowy feathers. She held a crimson-red heart in her pale, delicate hands._

_''**Change of Heart.**'' Hoshiko read aloud._

Ryou nodded and a small smile spread across his young face…

A sharp jolt to her arm tore her from her reverie, followed by another barrage of relentless giggling from the far left of the room. A large, white paper aeroplane lay on the table beside her elbow. Snatching it up, she unfurled it to read the (no doubt offensive) message inside. As she stared down, a hard lump of rage rose in her throat, and her mouth hardened into a cold, wrathful line.

Scrawled onto the crinkled sheet was a barely recognisable doodle of Ryou and her.

They had drawn her cross- eyes, she was running around with her head on fire, screaming manically in a speech bubble above her head-_''Look at me, I think card games are real!''_

Worse still was the roughly scribbled sketch of Ryou. They'd drawn him, knife in hang, chasing a screaming boy, blood dripping down his chin from his mouth. Beside it, in an elegant script, were the words- _''No wonder that murderer left- to get away from **you**!''_

Hands shaking with rage, the words slicing her like burning knives, she violently crumpled the paper into a tiny, compact ball, and flung it onto the tiled floor so hard that it bounced. She could feel the rage bubbling in her stomach, like the magma chamber of some long- dormant volcano, as she glared angrily into the porcelain, perfect face of the plane's envoy. With a smirk curving her well shaped lips, and one perfectly shaped eyebrow cocked, Mizuki Yamamoto dared her to come over. Mizuki had decided that Hoshiko had been bad news the second she'd walked into the school. An outsider, on a scholarship, not wealthy enough to pay the ample school fees. That was bad enough, but the whole situation had rapidly deteriorated after that incident five months ago, and even more so after Ryou had left. Mizuki and her gang of popular kids made Hoshiko's school life a misery.

She stared into those cold, beautiful cerulean eyes for another instant, feeling the wrath pulsate and rebound inside her. But no. She would not rise to the bait that was now dangling above her head like a carmine rag held in front of an enraged bull. And though she longed to charge, Hoshiko knew perfectly well that Mizuki would simply run to the Headmaster and she would be in serious trouble. Forcing herself to take deep, calming breaths, she ripped her gaze away from Mizuki's contemptuous sneer, and instead began to eat her unfortunate lunch once again, stabbing each morsel of food and though each had done her a great personal wrong.

Hoshiko shouldered her heavy schoolbag, and feeling as though she was being released from the most horrific of prisons, walked purposefully through the school gate. Behind her, in the spacious car park, crowds of bustling students flocked hurriedly onto the buses. She was one of the few pupils to make her way home on foot, and although her home was actually quite a distance away, she preferred it that way. It gave her time to think, to reflect on the day, however bad it might have been. And today had been bad enough, to say the least. She angrily swept aside the swell of furious thoughts and feelings that had risen in her psyche like a wall of turbulent water. She would have time to deal with those later.  
She ambled onwards, watching absently as her feet, in their jade green trainers paced monotonously- left, right, left, right... always pounding the concrete pavement, seemingly knowing the route off by heart, for she had walked these streets so often that her feet simply carried her to her particular destinations automatically. She violently shook her head from left to right, attempting to rid herself of the robotic mood she had found herself straying to so often recently.  
But then she realised where she was.  
With a jolt to her heart which must have felt like being shot, she realised which house she had unconsciously halted in front of. Normally she raced past this particular dwelling with head down, eyes studiously averted as to not glimpse the building which held so many memories for her... both joyous and terrible.  
Ryou's house stood like an empty shell, polished pure white and empty. And, like the way a shell is said to whisper the sound of the murmuring sea, the deserted house seemed to susurrate her memories back to her.  
The blue door was still adorned by the brass ''34'', and the white rose bushes were beginning to bloom, their buds swelled delicately, as though pregnant with an infant. The windows where raven- feather black. From where Hoshiko stood, she could almost imagine them as sorrowful eyes, begging her to return, the breathe life into the old house, now and forevermore the perennial ghost of its past self.  
Worse still were the swings, still residing solemnly outside the lonely house, like a forlorn sentinel, ripped from its childish purpose to guard the home of children- but children long gone. The wooden seats swung gently in the sultry breeze, emitting a slight creaking noise, as though the absent children were somehow, in the past, sitting on the swings, swinging joyfully back and forth as they had once done so often... when the balmly summer breezes came...

_Ry! Shiko! Let's go and play on the swings!  
_  
No... not that... it hurt too much.. still a fresh wound after all the years...

_And there came a day when there were only two children to laugh and play, for the third...._

Suddenly, she whirled around, away from the bubbling cauldronful of memories, away from the festering pain of the past. And, ignoring the heavy weight of her schoolbag pressing against her spine, she broke into a sprint, and she raced away from the old house, which seemed to stare after her with anguish, wishing for her to return, just as she wished desperately for Ryou to come back and ease her hurt, her anger, her ever- growing sorrow. For she had been left alone. Abandoned. Of the three, only she remained. Ryou had taken flight three months ago... And his sister had literally spread her white wings and flown away years before, leaving Ryou, leaving Hoshiko, leaving the world itself to weep…


	2. Make Believe

Hoshiko placed her hand on the worn, brass doorknob, and twisted it, pushing the white door inward. She had a fleeting glimpse of a medium sized hallway, with a maroon, threadbare carpet, littered with children's toys and colouring pencils, and with beige walls covered with paintings, when something crashed into her with such force that it nearly knocked her back outside.

Glancing down in alarm, she glimpsed a small, tawny haired boy with enormous lapis lazuli eyes staring adoringly up at her, a grin the size of a banana on his round, childish face. His arms were locked securely around her knees.

''Hoshiko! You're back!'' he cried joyfully. ''Let's go and play!''

She reached down and gently disentangled the lively youngster with a dismal sigh.

''Sorry, Kenji. I have homework tonight.,'' she sighed dramatically.

''Aw, no!'' He wailed desperately, tugging her sleeve enticingly. ''I want to PLAY!''

''Sorry, kiddo,'' she said, gently but firmly. ''Let's go find Reiko instead. Come on, I'll give you a piggyback.''

She eased the straps of her heavy schoolbag off her painful shoulders and deposited it beside the oak staircase. Kneeling down, she allowed the child to climb onto her back, and he wrapped his arms around her neck, joining his slightly sticky hands together beneath her chin.

''Piggyback!'' he hollered joyfully as she charged down the littered hallway and ran into the sitting room. The carpeted floor was littered with playthings, books and pencils. Several children were constructing a tower of blocks in the middle of the floor. Yet more drawings papered the wall- finger paintings, vague scribbles with crayons and portraits of the inhabitants of the house. There was even one of her, although in was not entirely flattering, considering that it consisted of two blobs for her head and body, four spindly lines for her limbs, and a wild red scribble which could have been her hair.

She allowed Kenji to clamber down from her back and he galloped eagerly over to the construction site in the centre of the floor.

Hoshiko, upon sighting a raven- haired girl sitting on the patchwork sofa, strolled quickly over and flung herself down beside her.

''Hey, Reiko.'' greeted Hoshiko, removing her brown hair band and ruffling her hair.

Reiko glanced up from the teenage magazine she had been reading.

''Hello, Hoshiko! How was school?''

''Same as always, I'm afraid.'' she muttered evasively .

''Ah.'' Reiko replied, tactful enough to refrain from enquiring further.

''Anyway,'' said Hoshiko. ''How are you today?'' She forced an almost- authentic smile.

Reiko began to chatter animatedly about her day at the comprehensive school, and Hoshiko half- listened, interjecting the monologue with ''yes'' and ''cool'' when needed.

Reiko had been at the orphanage almost as long as Hoshiko- about ten years to be precise. She was one and a half years older than she, but they were close friends. She had a chatty personality, and could often ramble on for ages without noticing no one was listening. She was popular at her school- she was constantly going out with friends and boyfriends. Her mother was dead, and her father lived in America. She often went to visit him, but always returned. She said constantly that she preferred it here.

''So,'' Reiko finished, finally noticing that Hoshiko was not really paying the slightest bit of attention. ''What did they do to you today?''

''Huh?'' she said quietly. ''Oh…. nothing.''

Reiko was not in the slightest bit convinced.

She had just opened her mouth to retort whenever the Matron strolled into the room.

A slightly plump, short woman, she beamed wildly as she appeared in the doorway. The evening sunshine, shining in from the large window, shone on her dark blond hair, which in recent times, had acquired a slight dusting of palest grey.

''Dinner is ready in five minutes, my darlings. It's rice.'' Matron sang in her musical, soft voice. The kind of voice you would want to read you bedtime stories at night. As it had so often done for Hoshiko.

''What's for dessert?'' piped up a little girl on the floor, clutching rainbow coloured blocks in her podgy, tiny hands.

''We'll decide that when you've eaten your dinner.'' said Matron firmly. ''Now children, go upstairs and wash those little mitts of yours. Chop chop!''

The children discarded the brightly coloured bricks onto the floor and clattered out of the room, and thundered up the stairs. There was the noise of the bathroom door being flung open and the tinkling of running water. Or so they hoped.

''I hope Kenji's not peeing in the sink again.'' Hoshiko commented dryly, swallowing a giggle.

''Oh! Hello, Hoshiko!'' exclaimed Matron suddenly. ''I didn't see you there. Did you just get in?''

''Yep. Home and fresh from school.'' she smiled falsely.

A cloud of anxiety passed over Matron's jovial face.

''And how was school today?'' she asked, and Hoshiko thought she could detect a note of apprehension in her voice.

''School? Fine.'' she said abruptly. ''Same as usual.''

Reiko gave her a look, obviously immune to Hoshiko's copious capacity for lying. She exchanged a look with Matron, which did not escape her attention.

''Are you sure?'' Matron enquired, definitely looking worried now. ''I mean to say, I've noticed you acting differently ever since that nice boy Ryou left a while ago…''

''Look, Hoshiko.'' interjected Reiko. ''I know you miss that card game obsessed boyfriend of yours, but don't you think you should forget about him and make some new friends?''

Hoshiko stood up so suddenly she knocked a few soft cushions to the ground.

''I'm fine.'' she said monotonously. ''Thanks for worrying anyway.''

She turned her back to them and walked out of the room. But then her copper haired head reappeared briefly around the wooden door.

''And another thing,'' she concluded firmly. ''He's _not_ my boyfriend.''

She stomped up the stairs to her room, leaving a tense silence behind her.

---

It was a hair's breadth away from midnight, and having abandoned all attempts to fall into a merciful slumber, Hoshiko lay awake on the small bed, staring absently out of the rooftop window on the ceiling, which tonight offered an excellent view of the brilliant night sky. There was no moon tonight. Only the stars blazed like pinpricks of white fire in the black velvet sheet that was the sky.

The house was utterly silent. The by day boisterous and lively children had long since been covered by sleep's warm mantle, and even Matron and the staff had retreated willingly into their own beds well over an hour ago.

But still slumber evaded her, no matter her efforts to catch it. Her eyes ached, perhaps with more than simple tiredness. It could have been the boiling, frothing cauldron of worries and tribulations in her mind that blocked sleep from entry with a cruel, metal portcullis. They festered in her mind like bats in a lonely cave. And cudgel them though she might, the bats simply escaped her and flapped and shrieked around her mind, banging into the walls of her skull.

I suppose it would be hard for me to describe exactly how Hoshiko was feeling on that night. But I shall attempt anyway.

She remembered how it used to be. How sweet the days were then! The three of them, playing, laughing, duelling. It was, she pondered, like having a real family. And sometimes, in her weaker moments, she had pretended that they were…. Make believe....Although it was impossible, if she were to tell herself the truth. Their hair was as white as swan feathers, hers as red as the dying embers of a fire… but it had been nice to pretend. Pretending was all she had.

She couldn't pretend anymore. Could she pretend that Mizuki didn't exist? Pretend that Ryou was still here? Pretend that his sister still had breath on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes? Pretend that she was fine… that it didn't feel that her life had shattered into a thousand pieces, like a stained glass window, painted with ornate and wonderful pictures… like someone had thrown a brick through it and it had fragmentalized into a hundred thousand glimmering pieces of coloured glass, shattering as it hit the floor? Could she pretend that? No.

She looked at her beside table. Barely illuminated by the glimmering, fiery stars, the silver frame of the photograph glinted. She reached out and turned it slightly so that the stars could illuminate it.

A time so long ago…. Ryou stood with an easy smile on his lips, one arm slung around the two younger girls stood beside him. There was Hoshiko. My, how different she looked! Her face was happy, her eyes kind. On the other side of Ryou was his little sister, one eye closed in a cheeky wink, waving cheerfully at the camera. Her hair was as white as her slightly taller brother's was. Her eyes shining peacock- feather green….

…She wondered how green they were now… at the bottom of a cold, silent grave.

She was close to wishing she was there too.

''I wish I could touch you.'' Hoshiko murmured quietly. ''I wish you were here. I wish you could bring Ryou back. I wish I could see you. ''

Hoshiko hadn't cried in ages. Months. Years even.

But a single, rebellious tear crept out of her eye and trailed down her cheek like a liquid star.

She closed her weary eyes and drifted off into a restless slumber, where her dreams were haunted by faceless angels with white hair…. Coming for her….. She held open her arms……

The water residue on her pale cheek glinted in the cold starlight.


End file.
